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PlayhouseSquare's new $100 million capital campaign gets a $9 million boost from Sherwin-Williams chief Chris Connor and family

Playhouse Square chandelier.JPG

PlayhouseSquare's newly announced $100 million capital campaign will be used in part to complete fundraising for streetscape improvements including the new GE Chandelier in the theater district.
(Joshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer)

"We're ecstatic," Art Falco, PlayhouseSquare's president and CEO, said Friday. "It's just an unbelievably special gift."

Connor was quoted in a prepared statement as saying, "We feel blessed to be in a position to insure that laughter, singing, dancing, education and wonderment will continue to emanate from these stages to delight Clevelanders for centuries to come."

Falco said the donation would help boost the campaign, for which $35 million has been raised in about seven months. The goal is to raise the balance in three to five years.

The $100 million will be used roughly 50-50, half to pay for immediate expenses and investments, and half for the institution's endowment, Falco said.

Immediate needs include renovations to aging plumbing and other equipment in PlayhouseSquare's three core theaters – the State, the Ohio and the Palace, all renovated between 26 and 32 years ago.

Roughly $8 million will be spent support educational programs and free or reduced-price tickets for children's theater productions.

A new production fund will help PlayhouseSquare bring "pre-Broadway" shows to Cleveland before they appear in New York.

Other immediate needs include completing the cash outlay for $16 million in streetscape improvements and signage in the theater district, including the recent installation of the world's largest outdoor chandelier as an iconic logo.

Roughly half of the money raised will be used as long-term capital to increase PlayhouseSquare's relatively modest endowment of $16 million to at least $60 million, roughly the equivalent of one year's operating costs for the nonprofit organization.

The endowment will be used to establish a restricted "theater preservation fund" for theater maintenance, which now costs roughly $2 million to $2.5 million a year, Falco said.

Formed in the 1970s to guide the preservation and reuse of the historic silent movie palaces and vaudeville houses in the city's downtown theater district, PlayhouseSquare now operates 11 stages and attracts a million visitors a year.

The rebirth of the theaters – which had been slated for demolition to make way for parking lots - marked the rise of modern historic preservation in the city. It was also an early example of the power of cultural institutions to anchor the revitalization of city neighborhoods.

With more than 10,000 seats, Playhouse Square (whose name as a physical place has a space between the two words) is the second-largest unified arts complex in the United States, after Lincoln Center in New York.

PlayhouseSquare -- the nonprofit organization -- earns about 90 percent of its annual operating costs through ticket sales and other revenues, Falco said. These include income from a portfolio of 1.3 million square feet of office and retail space the organization owns in its immediate neighborhood, and an additional 1 million square feet throughout the region.

PlayhouseSquare is seeking long-term stability, in part because cash flow from real estate operations fluctuates from year to year, Falco said. Increasing the endowment would be an important step in that direction, he said.

"We're moving from a period of renovating specific theaters or doing specific projects to now looking to the future for institutional stability so that the district will be vibrant for generations to come," Falco said.

Falco said he viewed the Connor gift as a validation of PlayhouseSquare's campaign, and that he hoped other donors would follow the example.

"It affirms," Falco said, "that the Connors believe in and support PlayhouseSquare -- not only what we put on our stages but how we have reimagined the entire district."

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